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A researcher in safety glasses holds up a beaker of yellow fluid.

QB3-Berkeley researchers engineer biological assembly-line enzymes to create new, sustainable products

February 11, 2025

Scientists are leveraging the modular nature of polyketide synthases (PKSs), or biologically-based, multi-domain enzymes, to design molecules in a way that could revolutionize everything from pharmaceuticals to biofuels. In the world of chemistry, the smallest changes can have profound impacts. Altering even a single carbon atom in a molecule can completely change its function and…

A group of people from the Lucas lab stand outside in front of a blue sky and green hills.

Faculty focus on Bronwyn Lucas

February 05, 2025

Bronwyn Lucas is an assistant professor of biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and the Center for Computational Biology. The Lucas lab employs cryo-EM and computational tools to develop new approaches to leverage the growing databases of molecular structures to investigate the molecular details of life. QB3-Berkeley: What’s…

An interview with Professional in Residence Abe Anderson

January 29, 2025

Abe Anderson, PhD, is a Computational Biology Scientific Associate Director in Precision Medicine at Amgen. He is joining QB3-Berkeley’s Professional in Residence (PIR) program in February 2025 and will be leveraging his background to host a virtual program on career development; trainees are invited to register for this PIR program. Anderson spoke with graduate student…

A group of researchers sits around a table and looks at logos for CTEG.

Meet the Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genomics

January 16, 2025

How a small group of scientists has grown into a collaborative community For most graduate students, a 4:00 pm meeting on a Friday is the last place they would choose to be. But if you walk into 4163 VLSB, you’ll see a gathering of graduate students, postdocs, PIs, and other curious scientists listening intently to…

A side-by-side of Jennifer Doudna and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

President Biden awards Doudna National Medal of Technology and Innovation

January 08, 2025

Jennifer Doudna, a UC Berkeley biochemist who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, has been awarded a National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement. President Joe Biden named Doudna and 10 other technology medalists in a White House announcement last Friday, Jan. 3.…

Scribbled images of human stick-figure silhouettes to represent early Neanderthals on a rocky wall. Cave art painting.

A new timeline for Neanderthal interbreeding with modern humans

December 12, 2024

Surviving Neanderthal genes in modern genomes tell a story of thousands of years of interactions   A new analysis of DNA from ancient modern humans (Homo sapiens) in Europe and Asia has determined, more precisely than ever, the time period during which Neanderthals interbred with modern humans, starting about 50,500 years ago and lasting about…

Headshot of Ahmet Yildiz

Faculty focus on Ahmet Yildiz

December 11, 2024

Ahmet Yildiz is a professor in the departments of Molecular & Cell Biology and Physics. The Yildiz laboratory combines biochemical and single-molecule biophysical techniques to understand how motor proteins move on microtubules long distances at fast speeds and produce the forces required to carry their cargo in a dense cytoplasm. QB3-Berkeley: Are there any recent…

A pair of gloved hands performs RNA sample extraction in the centrifuge.

Science with a story: diverse paths to discovery at UC Berkeley

December 03, 2024

How unique backgrounds in graduate student and postdoctoral researchers fuel innovation in science. As a child, my world was bound by curiosity, but also by barriers. As a first-generation, low-income Latinx student, I often felt like a fish trapped in a plastic bag—watching the ocean of opportunities just beyond my reach, the thin walls of…